When Saint Francis Saved the Church: How a Converted Medieval Troubadour Created a Spiritual Vision for the Ages

WHEN SAINT FRANCIS SAVED THE CHRUCH       JON M. SWEENEY

Jon M. Sweeney, author of numerous popular books on St. Francis as well as the recent bestseller The Pope Who Quit, offers a surprising new look at the world s most popular saint, showing how this beloved, but often-mythologized character created a spiritual vision for the ages and may very well have rescued the Christian faith. In When Saint Francis Saved the Church, popular historian Jon Sweeney presents an intriguing portrait of Francis beyond the readily familiar stories and images. In the tradition of Thomas Cahill s How the Irish Saved Civilization, Sweeney reveals how the saint became a hinge in the history of the Christian faith and shows how in just fourteen years from 1205 to 1219 the unconventional and stumbling wisdom of a converted troubadour changed the Church. Sweeney outlines Francis s revolutionary approach to friendship, the other (people at the margins), poverty, spirituality, care (for people, creatures, and the natural world), and death. This vibrant book presents the unsullied life and message of Francis in its essential details, offering a sweeping, informative, remarkable look at how Francis and his movement quite literally saved the Christian faith and continues to offer a spiritual vision with contemporary relevance." 

PAT'S REVIEW

Sweeney is looking at Saint Francis and the way he treated people and treated going to church every day. That the way he looked at everyone and everything as from God. He shows how now our new Pope Francis has taken on his name and why. Why going to mass every day and saying mass is important to him. As Saint Francis took in lepers and helped them Pope Francis is doing the same with the people that others think have no business being part of our church. He takes the approach as Saint Francis in that everyone is God’s creatures and therefore will be treated as such. This and Mas are two of the examples. There are many more as well as the people that thought what Saint Francis was doing was wrong, especially his father, and how the Pope is being looked at the same way inside and outside of the church. A very good and informative book. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com